Nanosecond microscopy of capacitance at SiO2/4H-SiC interfaces by time-resolved scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy

The time-resolved measurement of capacitance is a powerful method in the evaluation of defects in semiconductors, carrier dynamics in quantum dots, and photo-induced dynamics in photovoltaic materials. In this study, we demonstrate time-resolved capacitance measurements at the nanoscale using scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy. We detected the capacitance transient of SiO2/4H-SiC interfaces triggered by the application of a 3 ns pulse, showing the high temporal resolution of the developed method. We exemplified the method with the evaluation of the density and activation energy of defects at SiO2/4H-SiC interfaces that verified the quantitative capability and high sensitivity of the method. Two-dimensional mapping of the interface states showed nanoscale inhomogeneous contrasts, implying that the physical origin of the defects at SiO2/4H-SiC interfaces is microscopically clustered. Published by AIP Publishing.